"Oh," says M. Pasteur, "if you want to know that, you must go and see
M. Roux. You will find him in the laboratory."
We rise and go into the long hall. At the opposite end from the
library two large doors open into the spacious vestibule which
occupies the centre of the main building.
"You can go out by the main hall and directly into the laboratory, or
down the private stairs." I hesitated. No, I would not spoil my
impression of M. Pasteur at home. I would keep laboratory and home
separate. I descended to the private entrance, and, as I went down,
two kindly faces looked over at me, and the gentle, hesitating voice
of the great savant said:
"Take care, it is dark. Don't slip. Take care." On the last step I
stopped and looked up. The two friendly faces were still looking
down.
[Illustration: THE HOUSE AT DOLE, WHERE M. PASTEUR WAS BORN.]
I had come to see the destroyer of the theory of spontaneous
generation, the demonstrator of the microbe origin of disease, the
conqueror of hydrophobia. I had found something greater, perhaps, than
them all--a perfectly gentle soul.